From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Thu May 31 2001 - 15:27:12 MDT
Devil's advocate:
* Many private companies have announced plans to build various space
infrastructure components (not counting objects designed never to
require visits from spacecraft after launch, for instance
ground-to-ground communication satellites). These were honestly
serious plans (at least at first), not mere speculation about
possible future ventures.
* All of them, save for the few that national government agencies
(NASA, Energia, etc.) have lead the efforts on, have yet to actually
put so much as a single bolt into orbit, and look unlikely to suceed
(and thus become relevant to the general public) until someone
suceeds at (not just attempts to) bring down the cost of private
space access. (Though there are many attempts at this currently
underway, none of them have been successful yet. Although hopefully
one will in the near future and this problem can go away, current
reality of utility of investments must face this fact of life.)
* This is yet another example of the first, and as such is expected to
decay into the second.
I wish more people investing in space infrastructure would see this and
invest more heavily in the space access companies (say, XCOR), rather
than in the companies that propose to exploit space but can only work
once cheap space access becomes real (say, Bigelow's venture), lest the
money invested in the latter goes to waste while the underfunded
attempts at the former drag on for lack of funding. The presence of
the latter is necessary to demonstrate that there are customers for the
former, but there are far more than enough of the latter for this
purpose.
Doug Jones wrote:
>
> Smith, you're a troll. Bigelow is serious (I have friends working for
> him), and you are ignorant, puerile, and add no information of any
> utility to discussions on this list.
>
> PLONK.
>
> Randy Smith wrote:
> >
> > http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/bigelow_station_010531.html
> >
> >
> >
> > Yet another billionaire says he's goona build a resort in orbit.
> > Uh-huh...
>
> --
> Doug Jones, Rocket Engineer
> XCOR Aerospace
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